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14
March,
1939
in.
.Berlin:
A
Pact to
g.
Memel
Von Ribbentrop .signs
the
agreement
by
which
Lithuani4
nq,nds over
Memer.
An
ultimatum
hair- been presented
to
hithuania
.
by
Germany
threatening
air bombardment
unless Memel was ceded.
May,
1939 in
: A
Pact·With Italy
March 17, 1938
On
behalf of the Soviet Union, M. Litvinov
proposes a conferen!:J between France. Britain,
U.S.A. and U.S.S.R.
.
.
Germany, Italy and Japan are not invited
because: "We do not wish to discuss aggression
with aggressors."
A week later
Mr.
Chamberlain rejects the
Russian proposal.
Speaking in the House of Commons, he says:
"the indirect, but none the less ineVitable con–
sequence of such action by the Soviet Govern–
ment would be to aggravate the tendency towards
the establishment of
certain
groups of nations,
which must be inimical to European peace."
April 16, 1938
The Anglo-ltalian Agreement
is
signed.
May-July, 1938.
German propaganda against Czechosio'Oakia.
The activities. of the Sudeten Nazis cause
growing anxiety. At this stage, the Sudetens do
not
ask
for cession, but make demands on the
Czech Government which would give them a
favoured position within the Czech State. The
Czech Government refuses.
On July
26,
1938,
Mr.
Chamberlain announces
Van Ribbentrop, his
1i'ilhr-er
watching,
signs
the .Military Agree–
ment witll
Italy.
Cia7!O,
Italian, Fureign Minister, is on Hitler's
mght. Behind. t.hem are
G"oering
and other
German
leaders.
rr,
that Lord
Runcim~
is being sent to Prague as
~'an
.investigator and mediator" in the dispute betweeJ)
the Sudetens and the Czech Government.
Lord Runciman induces the Czechs to make
concessions, proposing division of the countn' by
nationalities into a series of cantons on the Swiss
model.
The Czech Government
announces
appointme~t"
of Sudeten Germans·to
~fficial
posts
in their districts hitherto held by Czechs. · But
on the same day the German press renews
its "atrocity" campaign against
~hoslovakia.
September 7, 1938
A proposal to
cede
the Sudetenland to Hitler.
A leading article in
The Times
says: "It might
be worth while for the Czech Government to
consider the project which has found favour in
some quarters of making €zechoslovakia a more
homogenous State by the secession of that
friogew
of alien populations who are contiguous to
th
nation with which they are united by race."
This article arouses consternation in Czecho–
, slovakia and indignation in Britain. It is officially
repudiated by the Foreign Office.
September 12,
1~38
.
The Nazi Congress at Nuremburg.
Hitler in a violent speech says : "The misery of
,
the Sudeten
Germans
is without end. They want
to annihilate them.
They are being oppressed
in an inhuman and· intolerable manner and treated
in
an undignified way."
The next
day,
riots break out in Sudetenland.
But they fail to spread, and Nazis do not come
across the frontier to help the Sudetens
as
they
promised. The Czech Government keeps
firm
and declares
M.artial
Law.
.
September 14-30, 1938
The Czech Crisis.
The Czech Government's firmness makes it
likely
that Hitler
will
get his way only through war.
His
Army, mobilised for summer manoeuvres, is
now at full strength. Anxiety
grows
in Britain and
france.
w
~n.~tWnHeJ ~,IMt.t:hlmoerllinraurprises ·
,...,••...., .......,'- by
.
..
g
to
den
Hitler.
;U
,\.AlCllllIIJC
general
"Good
The Premier returns on September 16. Days of
intense diplomatic activity
follow.
In great
secrecy the British and French Governments